The Beckett
by ucsbdad
Summary: Even on a future Mars, you don't mess with Kate Beckett. Even if you're Rick Castle. COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

The Beckett

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I did not own Castle. Rating: K Time: A century or so in an AU future.

 **Author's note: This is a sequel to chapters 751, 908 and 956 to 957 of After a Deadly Affair. Kate Beckett is the chief, and only, law enforcement officer at the small scientific colony on Mars. Author Rick has come to Mars ostensibly to write about the colony but actually to see his daughter, Dr. Alexis Castle.**

"Castle! What are you doing?"

"I'm picking you up."

Kate managed an eye roll _and_ a glare simultaneously.

"I can see that. _Why_ are you picking me up?"

"To carry you over the threshold."

"No one does that anymore. And certainly not here."

"Kate! We're the first couple to ever get married on Mars. This is historic. It has to be done right."

Kate sighed and allowed her husband of four hours to carry her into his quarters.

He gently put her down.

"There. Welcome to your new home, Mrs. Castle."

She smiled and kissed him. "Thank you, Mr. Beckett. It's lovely."

In truth, Kate knew Castle's place very well. She blushed slightly remembering just how well she knew the bedroom and the bathroom. The only bathroom with an actual bathtub on Mars. Everyone but Rick Castle had a tiny, cramped, four meter by four meter cubicle for quarters, even married couples. Kate's quarters, just across the hall from Rick's had a microwave oven to prepare the freeze dried foods the rest of Mars lived on, while Rick had a real kitchen and food sent from Earth just for him. And those he shared with, of course. Kate had been unable to resist real coffee and real ice cream, even though, at first, she hadn't liked Castle. She had had a tiny bathroom with a shower just barely large enough to turn around in. As she was rather slim, she had always wondered how some of the larger people managed. Not that she asked.

Castle had come to Mars ostensibly to write a series of puff pieces for the scientific colony on Mars to help popularize the colony. Actually, he had come to see his lovely and brilliant daughter, Dr. Alexis Castle. As a wealthy author, he had insisted on bringing as much of his life style as possible with him. His quarters were twenty meters by twenty meters and included all the comforts of home. He had to pay for it, of course, but that hardly bothered a man of his wealth.

As a mystery writer, he also had brought along a complete crime scene kit, something the tight-fisted bureaucrats on Earth had denied Kate, insisting there was no need for such expensive gear on Mars. Although she had sent three murderers back to Earth, she was still dependent on Castle for so many things that Earth refused to provide.

"Now I'm going to make my lovely bride a wonderful wedding dinner and then we'll get a good night's sleep before we head off on our honeymoon."

Kate laughed. "We may not get much sleep, and I don't think we have to worry too much about our honeymoon. Where would we go except to another dome here in Mars Science City?"

"We'll go to Dome 24." Castle replied with a smirk.

"You think so? And just how will we get in? No one has been allowed in. It's to be closed up and tended just by robots to be sure everything works perfectly after the installation crew leaves."

Almost everything on Mars had to be sent, at great expense, from Earth. Food was very expensive to ship as it was high in volume, even when it was freeze dried, dehydrated, or whatever. Dome 24 was the first of the new farm domes that would eventually feed the twelve thousand people on Mars.

The science colony was full of people with multiple PhDs and plenty of post-doctoral research. They had no time to take away from their very expensive projects to grow food, so a completely automated farm had been set up. Martian soil being sterile, Earth soil, complete with nitrogen fixing bacteria and all that was needed to provide fertile soil had been sent to Mars to be mixed with Martian soil and fertilized by human waste.

"I find your lack of faith disturbing." Castle said in an odd, low voice. "It's been five and a half months since they closed off Dome 24. The plan was to keep it closed for six months."

"So?"

"So, who's got two books on the _Greater New York Times'_ best seller list? I'll even give you a hint. It's someone on Mars."

Kate tried not to laugh and to look very serious

"Oh! Is it Professor Mangin with his papers on the Martian magnetic field?"

"Beckett!"

"I know. It's Dr. Samantha Palmer and those cute, if very filthy, limericks she wrote about you."

Castle shook his head.

"Computer, where are my books on the Times' best sellers list?"

"The same place they were when you asked that question twenty-seven times yesterday." The computer said in Kate's voice.

Kate couldn't help laughing. "Got much of an ego, Castle?"

"Computer! Answer the question." He barked.

"Number three on the list is _Princess Ares and the Canal Monster_ , a science fiction story set tens of millions of years ago when…."

"Enough." Castle cried. "And what's number one?"

"Number one is _Cold Heat_ , in which Marshall Nikki Heat and her husband…."

"That's enough." Kate said. "Everyone knows you're a wealthy best-selling author."

"And the Mars Scientific Colony has seen its approval rate rise by fifteen percent since I started writing from here. This year's budget passed on Earth with hardly a quibble. When I asked Ray Chavez, the Chief Operating Officer, if we could stay in Dome 24 for a couple of days, he was happy to oblige."

"What's in Dome 24 to make it so attractive?"

"Lake Athena, fifteen entire acres of water for us to swim and frolic in. Plus we can nibble on fresh fruits and vegetables, as long as we don't nibble too much. And the bright lights in the dome will give us a suntan that'll be the envy of all of Mars."

Kate thought for a second.

"Castle, that's really sweet of you. What do you say we skip dinner for a while and let me be cute for you?"

"Always."

When they were packing for their short honeymoon the next morning, Kate made an awful discovery.

"I don't have a swim suit. I mean, who'd bring a swim suit to Mars?"

Her husband smiled and held up a very small bikini.

"I just happened to have this in case I met someone on Mars I wanted to marry and take swimming on our honeymoon."

Kate looked at the suit.

"It's in my size. Exactly." After a beat, she added, "If awfully small."

He shrugged. "I know a guy. He sews as a hobby. Just don't wear it in the field of vision of the airlock cameras. I don't want all of Mars lusting over my wife."

"Are there any other cameras inside?"

"No just the ones to monitor who goes in and out. The place is filled with all sorts of other sensors, of course, to keep track of the food. Make sure nothing's rotting or something. But no one will see you if you skinny dip."

Every airlock had such cameras. In case of some sort of disaster, they needed to keep track of where everyone was so as not to waste time searching for people who were already safe. There had been no major disasters on Mars, but the planet was a forbidding environment. A number of people died each year for one reason or another. There were other cameras. Mostly they were in labs watching over experiments to keep track of what went wrong, or right.

As they left their quarters, Castle cleared his throat loudly. "Ahem! Have you noticed your former quarters?"

Kate saw there was a new sign on her door.

Katherine Houghton Beckett Castle

Captain, Greater New York City Police Department

Chief Law Enforcement Officer for the Planet Mars

Marshal of Mars

"That's your new office, so you won't have to go all the way to another dome to work."

"Castle, that's so sweet." She stood on her tiptoes and kissed hm.

"I was going to add, and possessor or the most perfect ass in the solar system, but…."

"You remembered I still carried a gun?" She finished for him.

"I thought it was self-explanatory."

"Let's just go on our honeymoon."

About half of the domes were connected by tunnels between them. However, Dome 24 was one that hadn't been connected yet. This meant that they needed to wear their environment suits to get to Dome 24.

Once inside, Kate looked all around her.

"This is so beautiful." She gasped.

He nodded. "Close to 15000 square meters of floor space makes it the largest dome on Mars, but it still won't be big enough to feed all of Mars, especially since we keep getting more people."

Castle walked her down the walkway and pointed out the different plants. "We have corn here and over there are potatoes. Just ahead is wheat. Beyond that is the apple orchard and to the right are oranges. If you look above us, you'll see the scaffolding that holds the second, third and fourth decks. The second deck is mostly green veggies, the third has coffee and some other totally unimportant plants and the top deck has the chickens and pigs."

"We're not going to be drenched in pig and chicken shit, are we?" Kate looked a bit worried.

"Everything is collected and recycled."

"So if everyone will have fresh Mars grown coffee, how are you going to keep me, Mr. Beckett?" She teased.

Castle goosed her. "I'll think of something."

Once near the center of the dome, Castle stopped. "Ta, ta, ta, ta, tah! And here we have the beautiful Lake Athena and our deluxe accommodations." He pointed to a large tent pitched by the lake.

"Why do we need a tent inside a dome?" Kate wondered.

"The lights in the dome are on 24/7, and they're really bright. So, it'll be nice and dark in the tent when we go to sleep."

"Not too dark, I hope. I wouldn't want to lose you."

"Never."

"What's first?"

"We should take the elevator to the top of the dome. This is the tallest structure on Mars. You can see for miles. Although all you can see is Mars."

Heading for the elevator Kate almost stepped on something that looked like a mechanical spider.

"What's that? One of the robots?"

Castle pulled out his tablet. "Correct. To be precise, it's one that checks on potatoes, carrots and other veggies that grow underground. There are a bunch of different kinds here. They've been programmed not to bother people."

They went through the entire dome, then swam, ate and once in their tent they made love.

The next morning Castle was making breakfast.

"Is there anything you'd like, Mrs. Castle?"

Kate thought for a moment.

"I'd love some fresh squeezed orange juice."

"Okay, as soon as I get the bacon done, I'll go get some oranges."

"Don't bother. I can do it." Kate took off towards the orange trees. She was back quickly with no oranges and an odd look on her face.

"I'm afraid the honeymoon is over, Castle. There's a body behind the orange trees."


	2. Chapter 2

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I did not own Castle. Rating: K Time: A century or so in an AU future.

 **Author's note: This is a sequel to chapters 751, 908 and 956 to 957 of After a Deadly Affair. Kate Beckett is the chief, and only, law enforcement officer at the small scientific colony on Mars. Author Rick has come to Mars ostensibly to write about the colony but actually to see his daughter, Dr. Alexis Castle.**

Castle turned to her.

"Are you kidding me?"

She shook her head.

"No."

They walked back to the body. The woman was on her back, with a large pool of dried blood behind her head. She wore a standard coverall that was common among workers on Mars. It had neither a name tag nor a company logo or a government insignia. Kate checked her pockets.

"No ID and I don't recognize her. Do you?"

Castle shook his head. "Not at all."

"There's a steel bar over here. It looks like it was for the scaffolding. There's what looks very much like blood on it. One guess what the murder weapon was."

Back in their own dome, they gathered their crime scene equipment and notified Dr. Singh, who served as the colony's coroner.

Rick and Kate checked the crime scene while Dr. Singh examined the corpse.

"Here's something. It's her environmental suit. Her name is Collins and she's with AgroTech, the company that's building this dome."

"How many AgroTech people are here?" Castle asked.

"Just one other as far as I know. I'll check the records and see what we have on them."

"I'm done for now." Dr. Singh said. "Preliminary COD is blunt force trauma to the parietal bone. Hit from behind, I'd imagine. The murder weapon is probably the steel bar you found. I examined it but didn't move it in case you need to do something. It has blood on it. I'll probably be able to tell you more once I get her on the table."

The two went back to their quarters and began their investigation. Collins turned out to be Renee Collins, American, age 28, from San Francisco. She had a master's degree in exo-biology from UC Berkeley. Next of kin was listed as her mother. Aside from that, her record was unremarkable. That was normal. Jobs on the cutting edge of science and engineering at the Mars colony were so sought after that the most minor problem would keep you on Earth.

The only other AgroTech employee on Mars was Michael Dempsey, Irish, but he had lived in England since he was a child. He was thirty and had a master's degree in biology from Oxford. He listed no next of kin. His record was also unremarkable.

Tests on the murder weapon showed the blood and DNA were from Collins, as was the DNA on the environmental suit.

"Should we track down Dempsey and see what he has to say?"

Kate shook her head.

"Let's look at Collins' cubicle first and see what's there."

The small cubicle was easy to search once Kate had opened it with her passkey. The bookshelves were full of books appropriate to her job and nothing seemed to be hidden in it. The bed was unmade but seemed to have been used by only one person. Kate swept it for DNA traces anyway. Kate noticed that the bathroom had little in the way of feminine beauty products, only a small tube of lip gloss and some scented body wash. She went to Collins' closet and found what she expected: Work clothes only. No clothing to go out and party in. Not that the residents of Mars partied much. They were the brightest and most driven group of over achieving workaholics that Earth could provide.

"I have something." Castle said.

"What?"

Castle showed her the back of a drawer he'd pulled out of her workstation. Taped to the back was a data storage chip and a small red rock.

"Good. We'll check it when we get back to our quarters. I'm going to grab her hard drive and check that as well."

They checked the rest of the tiny cubicle, even pulling up the carpet, but found nothing.

Once back in their quarters, Castle put the data chip into his computer.

"There's photo of a big red rock here." He checked the little rock that came with the chip. "Looks like the same kind rock." Suddenly an idea hit him. He went to his bathroom.

"Kate! Come here. You have to see this."

"What?" She asked, sticking her head into the bathroom.

"Look at this." He pointed to a small scratch on the bathroom mirror. "I scratched the mirror with the stone. It's a ruby. And if the photo is right, it'd be a damned big one."

Kate frowned, concentrating. "I assume the ruby is from Mars, but why would anyone care? You can manufacture diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and just about any other gem cheaply. Oh, women still get diamond engagement rings. It's a tradition. You gave me a three-karat diamond ring, but the diamond cost, what, three hundred dollars?"

"It came in an exquisite platinum setting." Castle said defensively. "It's gorgeous."

"And I love it, and you. But who cares about a gem worth less than it would cost to send it back to Earth?"

"Kate, this gem is unique. It's a bright red ruby from the bright red planet Mars. It's the most unique gem in history. And unique makes it valuable. Very valuable."

"Maybe." Kate conceded.

Rick decided to change the subject.

"Should we go interview Dempsey now?"

Kate shook her head.

"No. I want to get the final report from Dr. Singh on Collins' COD and I've downloaded the video from the security cameras at Dome 24. Once we get footage of Collins and Dempsey, or whoever, entering and only one person leaving, we can make an arrest."

That proved harder to do than Kate had thought. It was actually impossible.

"I had the computer fast forward through every bit of the video feed from the airlock security camera, instructing it to show anyone entering or leaving since the dome was closed off. The only people who entered after the dome was closed were you and me." Castle said.

"The cameras were hacked. Who would be able to do that?"

"We have an entire colony full of people with genius IQs and multiple PhDs. And all of them know how to make a computer sing and dance."

Then there was a knock on the door. It was Alexis.

"Dad! Kate! I just heard that your honeymoon was interrupted by a murder? How awful. Is there anything I can do? Can you tell me about it?"

They sat down and explained what had happened and what they had found so far to Alexis.

"So someone hacked the video feed?"

Castle nodded to his daughter. "Afraid so. And now we have twelve thousand suspects. It'll take forever to narrow them down."

Alexis smiled happily. "You're lucky to have a brilliant daughter, Dad."

"I'm well aware of that. Can you help?"

"You just need to go over the all the video footage from all the dome airlocks for the last five and a half months, to be on the safe side, and check where people went. If someone left Dome 18 for the Essen Werke facility and got there in, say, ten minutes, they couldn't have killed the victim. Easy."

Both Kate and Rick groaned.

"Easy? It'll take Kate and me a year to do that."

Alexis winked at Kate.

"I suppose if someone had a brilliant step-daughter, she just might be able to convince her to write a program to do just that."

Kate suddenly looked surprised.

"Why, I have a brilliant step-daughter. And she's gorgeous and loves to help solve murders as well."

The three laughed.

"Give me a few minutes. I already have a program that I can modify to handle this." Alexis sat down at Rick's computer and got to work.

As she typed away, they got a phone call from Dr. Singh.

"COD was as I said. A blow to the back of the head. Time of death was a week ago, give or take a day. I don't have all the equipment a real coroner would have. No one thought it'd be of any use on Mars. The only DNA I found on the environment suit, the body and the murder weapon was Collins'. There were no apparent defensive wounds, so I assume she didn't see it coming. And she had the hood of her coverall up. I'll bet there was no blood splatter on the killer. Tox screen was entirely negative. Normal, of course. It's hard to get anything to relax with here and anyone with the slightest medical problem stays on Earth."

Rick caught the message in Singh's report.

"Thanks, Ranjit. We're going to be a bit busy, but why don't you plan on coming over on the weekend. I got some Molson's India Pale Ale on the last ship from Earth. We can hoist a few."

"Bless you Mr. Castle. You're a true gentleman. Until Saturday?"

"Saturday it is."

Rick turned back to Alexis.

"How's it going?"

"I have the program modified. It'll take a couple of hours to run."

"Why don't we find Dempsey and see what he has to say?" Kate asked.

Dempsey seemed genuinely shocked by Renee Collins' death.

"Renee is dead?" He sat down heavily on the bed in his cubicle. "How? When? Why is Marshal Beckett…" Then the penny dropped. "It wasn't an accident?"

"She was murdered. She died about a week ago in Dome 24. You hadn't missed her in over a week?"

Dempsey shook his head numbly.

"We got here almost two years ago. In spite of all the heavy work being done by robots and computers, we worked our asses off the whole time. We worked twelve or fourteen-hour days, seven days a week. That's not unusual here, of course, but after all that time, we were kind of sick of the sight of each other. I've hardly seen her since we shut down Dome 24 to see if it really would work all by itself."

"When did you last see Ms. Collins?"

"Um, maybe two weeks ago. There was a little party in Mars Park. The Italians were celebrating something and they had wine. Everyone was there. We talked for maybe two minutes."

Mars Park was hardly a park. It was an open space in one of the domes. People had made benches and tables out of extruded plastic packing cases, and some others had managed to plant a few flowers in pots and soil they had brought from Earth. It was, however, the main social center for the Mars colony.

"Can you tell us where you were between six and eight days ago?" Kate asked.

"Right here, working."

"Working?" Kate jumped on that. "I thought the dome was done."

"One dome is done. It can't feed twelve thousand people and we have more people scheduled to come here. I have a number of ideas for the second dome. I want to get them down and ready for my bosses when I get back to Earth."

Dempsey was unable to give them any help. He said he knew nothing of Collins' social life, or lack thereof. He had no idea why she'd have gone back in Dome 24, nor who might have gone with her.

Rick and Kate didn't mention the photos of the ruby, nor the small chip of ruby they'd found. It would be better to keep that to themselves.

Once back at their quarters, they found Alexis had some suspects for them.


	3. Chapter 3

The Beckett

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I did not own Castle. Rating: K Time: A century or so in an AU future.

 **Author's note: This is a sequel to chapters 751, 908 and 956 to 957 of After a Deadly Affair. Kate Beckett is the chief, and only, law enforcement officer at the small scientific colony on Mars. Author Rick has come to Mars ostensibly to write about the colony but actually to see his daughter, Dr. Alexis Castle.**

"I had eight suspects for you. People who'd gone out an airlock and took way too much time to get where they were supposed to be going. But I managed to find an alibi for four of them."

"I think we should decide who has a good alibi, Pumpkin."

"Okay, Dad. Here's the video of the four leaving their varying domes and here they are building a Martian snowman for Christmas." The video showed a sort of man-like creature being made from stones and then sprayed with white paint. A knit cap and a pipe made out of old metal parts finished the figure. The four danced around their 'snowman" for a few minutes, then left.

"I found the video on what passes for social media around here. The time and date stamps haven't been altered."

"Okay, brilliant daughter, you win. Who's next."

"Someone leaving Dome 16 with their nametag and company logo obscured."

The video showed an environmental suited figure leaving an airlock.

"I've already figured out who it is. The width of the hips shows she's a woman and comparing her to the known height of the airlock, she's at least 6'3''. Which leads us to Heidi von Kleist, employed by the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, headquartered in Munich, Germany. She left her quarters in Dome 16 seven days ago and was gone for nine hours before coming back to her own dome. She could easily have gotten to Dome 24 and she has plenty of computer skills." Alexis frowned. "That reminds me, the colony's computers are ridiculously easy to hack into. The ones controlling the video cameras are too simple to be believed. Do you think someone planned it that way?"

Castle smiled. "Are you suggesting a vast, shadowy interplanetary conspiracy? Perhaps one involving ancient Martians? I like the way you think, Pumpkin."

"Don't give up on the conspiracy too soon, Dad. I found something else. Starting about a month ago, the video feed from various the airlock cameras started to fail for perhaps thirty seconds to a minute. Look."

Alexis showed a video taken at an airlock. You could see a shadow approaching then nothing but static for 41 seconds, then the picture came back. By that time the person, whoever he or she was, had left the dome. Three minutes later, someone was shown exiting the airlock.

"Someone's getting everyone used to the cameras going out for a little bit." Alexis said. "Maybe we could check who was shown going out and eliminate them as suspects."

Kate shook her head.

"If I was smart, and everyone on Mars is very smart, I'd make sure I was seen going in or out a couple of times so no one would suspect me."

"Good point, Kate. Perhaps I'll have someone else identified when you get back."

Heidi von Kleist was an impressive woman. She was a good six feet, three inches tall and was two hundred and fifty pounds of solid bone and muscle. Her blonde hair was cut short and she would be called a handsome woman, not pretty or beautiful.

"How may I help you, Frau Castle?" She asked in accented but clear English.

"We're investigating the murder of Renee Collins in Dome 24. Perhaps you're aware of it?"

"Ja. Bad news travels fast. But why do you want to talk to me?"

"You left your dome within the window of opportunity of the murder and didn't come back for nine hours. Plenty of time for you to have killed Renee Collins."

"I did not kill anyone!" She barked. "Who told you I did?"

"No one. We're checking everyone who left a dome and was gone long enough between six and eight days ago to have committed the crime. Will you tell us where you went?"

Von Kleist blushed. "Do I have to?"

"You're a murder suspect. You don't have to talk to us at all, but if you won't talk, we'll just ask everyone in the colony until we get someone who will talk. Is that what you want?"

She shook her head.

"I have a husband back on Earth. I love him, but I've been here for over two years. I get lonely and in need of….sex."

"And you were with?" Kate asked.

"Professor Sato, of the University of Tokyo Particle Physics Laboratory. They have their own small laboratory dome out beyond Dome 4."

"And you were…having a sexual relationship with him?" Kate asked as kindly as she could.

"Ja." She said very quietly.

"I'll need to confirm that you were together. We'll talk to Professor Sato."

"He'll deny it. He's also married but his wife is here on Mars. They hardly ever have sex, but he loves her. She's an expert on Martian geology and has been at the Valles Marineris, the Grand Canyon of Mars, for two months. That's why we could…You know."

"We'll still have to…"Kate began.

"Would this help?" Von Kleist asked, taking a data chip from her lab coat pocket and handing it to Kate. "I leave my camera on and place it where we can be seen. I don't wish to blackmail dear Hiroshi, I just want something to remember when his wife comes back."

Kate put the chip in the reader of her tablet. Professor Sato was barely five feet tall and von Kleist was carrying him around with one arm while he was having sex with her. As the video went on it was obvious that the two were very acrobatic.

"We'll need to check the part when the murder took place and check the date/time stamps."

"Can I have it back? Or at least don't release it to the public. I don't want anyone to get hurt."

Kate thought for a second. "As long as your alibi holds, I won't make the video an official part of my report. I can return it to you, but you should know that affairs have a tendency to be found out."

"When will Mrs. Sato be back?" Castle suddenly asked.

"In six months." Heidi said with a big smile.

Once they had left von Kleist's quarters, Kate turned on Castle. "Why were you interested in when Mrs. Sato comes back?"

He shrugged. "Just thinking. If Collins somehow found out about the romance, Sato could have killed her to shut her up. But if she's not coming back for six months, he wouldn't need to kill her in any rush."

"We'll have Alexis check for Sato's location when we have her check the time/date information on the video."

Castle came to a sudden stop. "What? You don't actually plan to show that to Alexis, do you?"

Kate managed to keep from grinning. Her husband was so over protective of his daughter.

"Castle, she's an adult. She knows about sex."

"Don't say that!" He yelled, putting his hands over his ears.

"We'll talk about it later." Kate conceded.

When they returned to their quarters, Alexis had news for them.

"We can take von Kleist off of the suspects list."

"How do you know that, Pumpkin?"

"I ran her face through facial recognition and got a hit. Some guy named Sato has been posting some awfully racy stuff on social media."

"You saw that?" Castle squealed.

"That means Mrs. Sato is going to find out." Kate said. "We'd better be ready when she comes back. No telling what she'll do."

"No problems. "Alexis said with a grin. "She has her own social media site. She's over at the Valle Marineris with two other women and seven men. Look at this." The computer screen showed what appeared to be ten people having sex. "It's a little hard to tell who's doing exactly what to who, but if you slow it down…"

"Don't you have any evidence for us?" Castle yelled. "Suspects?"

"Oh, sure. There's a guy called Barton Nolan over in Dome 10. Works for International Physics Solutions. He goes out of his dome regularly, stays out for up to eight hours and then comes back into Dome 10 without going anyplace else. One time was in the middle of the TOD window."

"We'll go see him." Kate said, taking Castle's hand and leading him out before he could say anything to Alexis.

Barton Nolan flopped back on his bed as soon as Kate introduced herself. The skinny young man had a wispy beard and a bad complexion. His clothing was rather ratty as well.

"I knew you'd be coming for me. Okay, you got me. I did it."

"Mr. Nolan, if you're going to confess to murder, I need to read you're your rights." Kate said, reaching in her pocket for the laminated card she always read from.

Nolan jumped up. "Wait! Murder! No! I haven't murdered anyone."

"Then what are you confessing to?" Castle asked.

"This." Nolan took two hand rolled cigarettes from his pocket and handed them to Kate.

"And that's….?"

"Weed. Pot. Grass. Mary Jane. It's marijuana. I thought that's what you were busting me for."

"We're investigating the murder of Renee Collins. Have you heard of that?"

Nolan shook his head.

"She's one of the people putting up the farm dome. Dome 24. She was found murdered there. The video camera at the airlock was hacked so there's no video of the killer. We're investigating people who went outside and whose whereabouts can't be accounted for. That's you? Where were you between six and eight days ago?" Kate demanded.

Nolan shrugged. "Either here or working. Or outside, getting stoned. I drive one of the rovers a couple of clicks away and light up."

'Why?" Kate asked. This wasn't normal for the type of workaholics Mars attracted.

"Why? Do you know what this place is like? I'm a freaking genius. My IQ is so high it can't be accurately measured. I got three PhDs by the time is was twenty-five. Who else can say that?"

"My daughter got her third when she was twenty-four." Castle said, unhelpfully, in Kate's opinion.

"Whatever. I was one of the five people who founded Lunar Labs when I was a damned undergrad. The other four bozos decided to sell out for a couple of billion. It was chump change! I told them that, but would they listen? No! All they could do was talk about being billionaires."

"My sympathies." Castle said sarcastically. The sarcasm was wasted on Nolan.

"And then I came here. I have to work for Doctor Lysenko. He must have gotten his PhD out of a cereal box. And Dr. Carruthers? She's worse. She must have to look up the word "physics" when she has to write it down. She has to take off her shoes to count past ten. And the people in the home office in LA are even worse. Do you know who they are?" Nolan answered his own question at once. "A bunch of damned MBAs. Can you believe it? People with lousy master's degrees telling me what to do. I've made the company tens of millions of dollars and what do they do? They bitch to Lysenko and Carruthers that I haven't made billions or swept all the Nobel prizes. And then they bitch at me."

"Did you expect to get the Nobel Prize for literature?" Castle asked nastily.

Nolan shook his head. "How could anyone in their right mind give a prize for scribbling at the same time as ones for physics, chemistry and medicine?"

Kate quickly took Castle's hand and held it tightly to keep him from hitting Nolan.

"So you go out in in a rover and get high when things get to be too much?"

"Yeah."

"Do you grow your own?" Kate asked.

"Sure. Do you see any pot stores around here?"

"Do you know either Renee Collins or Michael Dempsey? They were the crew setting up the farm dome."

Nolan laughed. "What? Me hang around with a couple of FFA rejects? Some dummies with master's degrees? Not likely."

"So how did you grow your little farm if you didn't get help from them?"

He smiled at Kate. "Nice try. I got the dirt from Bao Chen. She brought dirt and some stuff from Earth to grow some damned flowers. It turned out that instead of a green thumb, she was more like a plague of locusts. Everything died. She gave me the stuff. I grow it in my office. I've got my bosses convinced it's some kind of experiment. They are so-o-o-o dumb."

"Can you prove where you were at the time of the murder?" Kate asked.

"No. But you can't prove I wasn't in the rover." He checked his watch. "Time for me to go to work. We're done here."

Once they'd left Nolan's, Castle stopped. "Care to bet on who the next murder victim on Mars will be?"

Kate refrained from laughing. "He is full of himself, isn't he?"

"One thing. Could we find out who took out a rover at the time of the murder? We could bust his alibi that way."

Kate shook her head. "The rovers themselves have a GPS system, so we could tell if a rover was gone during the murder. But taking a rover out is on the honor system. Mars colony assumes that if you want a rover, you need one. And most people don't need to go any further than they can walk. He's right, though. We can't prove he wasn't in the rover, and he can't prove he wasn't in Dome 24 committing murder."

When they got back, Alexis had news for them.

 **To Guest: This story takes place several hundred years from now. The exact year is immaterial. The Martian north and south poles have frozen water, and frozen carbon dioxide. Recently scientists have found frozen water under the north pole. I'm assuming either there is more water near the colony, or an aqueduct from the poles. I haven't made any decision on how long the journey from Earth to Mars and back would take, but certainly less time than any current day near future trip. If Earth is able to support a fairly large scientific colony on Mars, I'd assume that Earth is neither overpopulated nor polluted. NASA has suggested that ice could be used to protect any Martian settlement from solar radiation, but I've assumed that some sort of advanced technological solution has been found by the time of the story.**


	4. Chapter 4

The Beckett

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I did not own Castle. Rating: K Time: A century or so in an AU future.

 **Author's note: This is a sequel to chapters 751, 908 and 956 to 957 of After a Deadly Affair. Kate Beckett is the chief, and only, law enforcement officer at the small scientific colony on Mars. Author Rick has come to Mars ostensibly to write about the colony but actually to see his daughter, Dr. Alexis Castle.**

"Two things. I think I've narrowed down the time of death for you. On Saturday the 10th there was a complete shutdown of all the sensors in Dome 24. It lasted from 1305 to 1319. The dome computer notified Dempsey's work station in his quarters and he rebooted the system."

"He didn't mention that to us." Castle said.

"And we didn't ask. And we had a two day or so time of death."

"It looks like he has an alibi, then."

"Yeah." Beckett grumped. "Everyone has an alibi."

Castle checked his watch.

"That's enough work for today. Why don't I cook dinner for my two favorite women?"

"Sounds good, Dad. But I do have another suspect for you. Marilee Roubideaux, from the Big Easy, age 26, radio astronomer. PhD is from Stanford. She runs the ground station for the Phobos Array. She left right in the middle of our new time of death and was gone for six hours."

"We'll see her tomorrow." Rick said.

That night, after making love, Kate snuggled up next to Rick. She felt he was tense.

"You okay, lover?"

"No. I hate the idea of my little girl seeing the sort of things that she saw today. I mean, ten people?"

Kate knew that Alexis was not a virgin and hadn't been for a while. But she had to say something.

"Alexis is a very intelligent and widely educated woman, Castle. She's seen things like that before."

"Where? When"? He sounded like he was going to find whoever had exposed Alexis to porn and beat him up.

"Do you remember she took a course on the Roman Empire as an undergrad?"

"So?"

"There are frescos in Pompei that make Mrs. Sato's video look tame. I saw one of her text books once. Don't worry, Rick. You have nothing to worry about where Alexis in concerned." That was true if not a ringing endorsement of Alexis' sexual innocence.

"You're right as usual, Kate. That's just another reason for me to love you."

Both slept soundly that night.

Marilee Roubideaux was a beautiful woman. Long blonde hair, good cheekbones, deep blue eyes, a cute little nose and a strong chin. The rest of her was covered with a somewhat shapeless lab coat. Kate noticed that, unlike many of the women on Mars, Roubideaux used makeup and used it well.

"How can I help you?" She asked, looking straight at Castle.

"Dr. Roubideaux, we're investigating the murder of Renee Collins in Dome 24." Kate said.

Still looking at Rick, she said, "Oh, please call me Marilee, sugah."

"I think you should talk to Marshal Beckett. She's the police officer here, and my wife."

Roubideaux sighed. "How can I help you, Marshal?"

Kate explained what they knew about the murder, leaving out the ruby, and asked Roubideaux explained that they were interviewing everyone who'd been out of the domes at the time of the murder.

"Did you know either Renee Collins or her co-worker, Michael Dempsey?"

She shook her head. "Not at all, I'm afraid."

"Where did you go when you left the dome on Saturday the 10th?"

"Do I have to answer?" Roubideaux said rather snottily.

"I can hold you and interrogate you for twenty four hours. You can ask for an attorney, but there are none on Mars. You could delay questioning for a very long time and I'd need to know your whereabouts all the time, and talk to everyone you know, ask for information from Earth. I'm not sure how your bosses on Earth would react the that."

She rolled her eyes, not as well as Kate did in Rick's opinion.

She stood up. "Look. I'm gorgeous. I'm the most beautiful woman on Mars."

 _Wrong._ Thought Castle.

Roubideaux took off her lab coat. Her slacks and top looked like they'd been painted on.

"I have a fantastic body. My boobs are D cups and they're natural, not artificial. I have great, big nipples. I won my first wet tee shirt contest when I was twelve." She turned around and wiggled her ass." And I have the best ass ever."

 _Wrong again_. Castle thought.

"And I'm great in the sack. Jorge always said so."

"Jorge?" Kate asked.

"My _former_ boyfriend, Jorge Oquendo. He dumped me for that flat chested Greek skank, Melina Karamanlis."

"I don't see what this has to do with…" Kate began.

"I'm getting to that. I went out to make this." She punched something into her computer and a video came up. It was obviously on Mars and appeared to be in a cave. Something was chiseled into the wall of the cave.

"I don't understand."

"That's the written language of the ancient Mycenaean Greeks, going back some three thousand years." Roubideaux giggled. "Ancient Greece is kind of a hobby with me. Anyway, the Martian Geological Survey will get to that cave in about five years. They'll find Greek writing in a Martian cave. News will go back to Earth. Everyone will be fascinated. It'll be on all the news services. People will wonder if ancient astronauts had visited Earth and taken Greeks to Mars?"

"And?" Kate asked, getting tired of the woman.

"When they finally translate it, it'll say, "Melina Karamanlis sucks big donkey dicks."

Kate sighed. "We'll need the original of the video to check the time/date information and the GPS coordinates."

Roubideaux handed it over. "You won't show it to Jorge or that skank, will you?"

"By law, investigative materials not relevant to prosecutions are kept confidential." Kate said unhappily.

"Goodie!" Roubideaux clapped and jumped up and down.

"One thing, Dr. Roubideaux," Castle asked, "why did your boyfriend dump you?"

"Some nonsense about me being too self-absorbed. Whatever that means. Why?"

"Just curious."

Once outside Castle whispered in Kate's ears. "I wouldn't trade a year with a hundred Merilee Roubideaux for a second with you."

"Of course not. A year with someone with a bigger ego than you? It would kill you."

"Kate!" Rick moaned. "That's not what I meant."

"I know. Just teasing."

When they returned to their quarters, Alexis was waiting for them with a big smile on her face. In her lap was one of the farm robots. It was one that looked like a metal spider.

"Good news. I'm pretty sure I've cracked the case."

"Pumpkin! You mean a robot did it. That is so cool! It's so rise of the machines. Congratulations!"

Alexis sighed.

"Dad! You're embarrassing me. The robot didn't do it. Although it helped."

"Why don't you start from the beginning?" Kate suggested.

"I got to wondering about Michael Dempsey's alibi. I mean everyone on the planet is good at manipulating computers. Why not him? So I went to Dome 24 and started checking the robots. That's when I found this one."

"Little R2D2 was involved? Is it a robot conspiracy?"

"Dad! Please!"

"What did you find, Alexis?" Kate asked.

The redhead smiled. "It was what I didn't find that was interesting."

"The curious incident of the dog in the night time." Kate said, smiling as well.

" _The Sliver Blaze,_ by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle." Castle finished. "It was curious that the dog didn't bark, which meant that the evildoer was not a stranger, but someone the dog knew."

"What didn't you find?"

"There was no indication that the robot had been reprogrammed to reboot Dome 24's sensors when they went down at the time of the murder."

"So?" Castle was curious.

"What there was, was a brand new memory core, something none of the other robots had. As if someone had programmed the robot, then put in a brand new memory core and then downloaded everything from the old memory to the new one, but leaving out the programing on rebooting."

"That's suspicious, Alexis, but not criminal."

"There's more. According to the official records of AgroTech, this robot was destroyed in an accident just before the dome was closed up. Michael Dempsey reported the destruction but according to its GPS, it's been in Dempsey's quarters."

"Castle, we need to go talk to Michael Dempsey."

"Yes we do."

Arriving at Dempsey's quarters, Kate reached down and slid her backup pistol from her ankle holster and handed it to Castle.

"Use this only if you have to and stay behind me. Behind me. Do you understand that?"

"Sure. I love the view from behind you."

Kate rolled her eyes, then, using her passkey, opened the door. Empty!

"He can't get far." Castle said. "This is Mars, after all."

"He's killed before. I don't want to give him a chance to kill again." She pulled out her phone. "This is Captain Kate Beckett, Law Enforcement Officer for the Mars Colony. Central Computer, give me the location of Michael Dempsey, employee of AgroTech. He is a suspect in a murder investigation. On my authorization, lift all privacy protocols."'

In less than a second, the Central Computer replied.

"Michael Dempsey entered Dome 20 seven minutes ago. He has not left."

"Advise me if he leaves." Kate ordered.

"Dome 20 is where they keep the rovers." Castle said.

Kate shook her head. "He can't go anyplace. Nowhere safe for him, that is. But, there are some small domes used for dangerous experiments and for private corporations away from the main domes. He could be looking for a hostage. Try to trade hostages for freedom."

Luckily, they could go straight to Dome 20 without having to don environmental suits. They arrived just in time to see Dempsey climb aboard a rover and leave through an airlock.

"Grab an environmental suit, Castle. We'll take a rover and go after him."

By the time Castle was in his suit, Kate had put hers on and was getting into a rover.

"I talked to the Rover Center operations computer. The rover that Dempsey grabbed has a bit over 50% of its air and power. This one is 100% for both."

They had no trouble following Dempsey. He was going as fast as he could and leaving a dust trail in his wake that was only slowly settling in the weaker Martian gravity.

Only a dozen kilometers from the colony they found Dempsey.

"There!" Castle shouted. "He's stopped and he's facing us. Do you think he wants to play chicken? Maybe suicide by cop?"

Kate stopped a good hundred meters from Dempsey's rover and got on the radio.

"Dempsey, this is Captain Kate Beckett. You may as well give up. There's no place for you to run for. I promise you'll get a fair trial."

That was met with a burst of laughter. "Sure, a fair trial followed by personality reform. They'll fry my brain to make sure I never have another naughty thought in my life. There was a guy at Oxford like that. He'd been a student, but he killed his girlfriend. Once they were done with him he just cleaned toilets all day long and smiled. No one's turning me into some zombie."

"Dempsey, I'm going to come over to talk to you, okay?"

As Kate opened the door, Dempsey opened his door and fired something at their rover. They both felt the jolts as something hit the rover.

"I thought you had the only guns on the planet?" Castle cried.

"He has a nail gun." Kate pointed to several nails stuck in the windshield of the rover. Luckily, none of them had penetrated.


	5. Chapter 5

The Beckett

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I did not own Castle. Rating: K Time: A century or so in an AU future.

 **Author's note: This is a sequel to chapters 751, 908 and 956 to 957 of After a Deadly Affair. Kate Beckett is the chief, and only, law enforcement officer at the small scientific colony on Mars. Author Rick has come to Mars ostensibly to write about the colony but actually to see his daughter, Dr. Alexis Castle.**

"Just stay where you are, Marshal. I've had a little time to plan. When I saw that redheaded bitch come out of my quarters with my robot, I knew I had to move fast."

"Why did you do all of this?" Castle, always interested in the story, just had to know. "Jewels are dirt cheap. Why do all of this."

"You really want to hear my long, sad story?" Dempsey said mockingly.

"Sure. All we have to do is wait until you run out of air."

"Do you know what it's like in this hellhole, Castle? What it's really like. Crap food, lousy quarters, no entertainment and the worst people imaginable as company."

"What's wrong with the people? Beckett and I have made lots of friends here."

There was another laugh from Dempsey.

"Sure, the most beautiful woman on Mars and the richest man on Mars, with his bloody giant flat and his bloody gourmet food and wine. Don't imagine you live anything like me, Richard Bloody Castle. I have a master's degree from one of the best universities on the planet and every one of those arrogant swine with their multiple PhDs act like I'm some unlettered peasant. I worked my ass off on improving the farm domes so I could go back to Earth and stay there managing things and not have to ever comeback to this shithole again. And do you know what? AgroTech wanted me to come right back with just a year on Earth. I was too valuable to the company to waste on Earth."

"But why kill Renee Collins over a hunk of rock?" Castle thought he knew but wanted confirmation.

"Renee and I found the rock in a patch of corn. On of our machines had picked it up with a load of Martian soil and dumped it. I told Renee we'd be rich. We could go back to Earth and live normal lives. She agreed at first, but then she started talking about giving it to the colony. I convinced her that we would, but that we'd wait until the dome was finished and operational. Otherwise the hoopla would interfere with our mission."

"You had no intention of giving up the ruby."

"You're absolutely right. Give the murder mystery man a prize."

Kate broke in.

"But why? You could make a bigger ruby cheaply on Earth."

"Have you ever heard of Big Bill Bracken?" Dempsey asked.

"Sure." It was Castle who answered. "He's a multi-trillionaire. One of the ten richest men on Earth."

"He and his trillionaire buddies like to play a little game. They like to see who can come up with the most expensive conspicuous consumption. For instance, one guy bought up a dozen lost Millard Welles paintings."

Seeing Kate's confused expression, Castle explained.

"Millard Welles was an eccentric mid twenty first century painter. He was famous for his luminous landscapes of the US Southwest. He, his wife, and his mistress were murdered by another mistress. The mistress took off with twenty or so paintings Welles had in his studio. She headed for Mexico and was killed in a shootout with the _Federales._ None of the stolen paintings were ever found. Given what Welles' paintings are worth today, a dozen would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars."

"Why? He could never show anyone that he had them. If they were stolen, they'd have to go back to the descendants of Welles, or someone other than some trillionaire who bought them on the black market."

"They don't care, Captain. All they care about is that they're rich enough to buy something no one else can and to hell with everyone else."

"I still don't see the connection." Castle said.

"One of the trillionaires had a research submarine his company had developed. He sent it down to the Marianas Trench, the deepest spot on the ocean on all of Earth."

"Almost eleven kilometers straight down." Castle added.

"There are fish that live at that depth, or damned near there. He served his buddies a seafood dinner that cost millions to catch. And that gave Bracken an idea. We sent samples of everything back to labs on Earth for testing to make sure we had no mutated plagues growing or something. Bracken had me set aside a small crate with the very best foods in it. He served foods from Mars to his pals. Who could top that?"

"That's illegal. If you can testify against him, maybe a deal can be worked out so…."

Kate was cut off by Dempsey's laughter.

"You can't touch Bracken."

Kate bristled at the idea. "No one, not even a trillionaire is above the law."

"Bracken is the largest single stockholder of AgroTech. He owns twenty percent of the company and he owns 100% of the company that AgroTech hired to test the foods. Their contract says they have to dispose of the foods when they're done. So, Bracken can say he's done just that. He'll make himself out as a hero for actually eating the foods from Mars and proving that they're perfectly fine."

"I think Dempsey may be right." Castle said.

"You're damned right I'm right. I could have sold the ruby to Bracken and he'd have had it cut and had one of his mistresses wear the bloody thing and no one but Bracken and his rich pals would know just how rare and unique the ruby was."

"So what now?" Kate asked.

"The game is over." Dempsey replied. He left the rover and turned the nail gun on himself. The nails ripped a dozen holes in his environmental suit. By the time Rick and Kate got to him, he was dead. They found the ruby in his pocket.

Once the paperwork was done, Rick and Kate met with Ray Chavez, the Chief Operating Officer of the Mars colony who was often referred to as the mayor or Mars, just as Kate was called the Marshal of Mars.

Chavez shook his head. "Another murder on Mars and a suicide. I never thought that we'd have such things when I first got here."

"I guess people are the same everywhere, Ray." Kate said.

"Anyway, it's over. Your report and the Beckett are on the way back to Earth."

Kate was confused. "The Beckett? What's the Beckett?"

"Oh. Didn't your husband tell you? That's what he's calling the ruby, The Beckett Ruby."

Kate smiled at her husband. "The Beckett Ruby. That's so sweet, Castle."

Ray Chavez went on. "Although the photos of you wearing it are a little racy, most places don't have much of a nudity taboo these days."

"Photos? A nudity taboo?" She turned to Rick. "You sent off the photos of me wearing the damned ruby around my neck? That's _all_ I was wearing! Castle, you could see my boobs in those shots! What were you thinking of?"

"That you're beautiful and everyone should…."

But Kate had stormed out of Chavez's office before he was done.

He caught up with her just as she reached her office. She turned on him.

"I need to do paperwork. Stay the hell out of my office. Don't you dare try to come in." She went in and slammed the door behind her.

Castle cooked a gourmet meal for dinner, but Kate remained in her office, eating a freeze dried meal. She had no bed in her new office, so she returned to their quarters to sleep. However, she wore a thick pair of woolen pajamas she'd gotten in case she ever had to sleep in one of the rovers. When Castle put his hand on her hip, she slapped it away.

They had breakfast together the next morning. Castle spent the morning apologizing to her and Kate spent the morning not saying a word, just glaring at him. Then her phone rang.

"Beckett." She growled. She listened, then put the phone down. "England upset the favorite France in the World Cup. The celebrations here are getting out of hand." She headed for the door, then turned. "Are you coming, or what, Castle?"

"Let me grab my stuff and I'll be right with you." He shouted happily, running around and trying to find all of his crime kit equipment.

Once out in the hallway, ahead of Rick, Kate let a smile spread over her face. She remembered all of the girls and women who had flaunted their artificial D cup boobs and teased her and laughed about her natural B cups.

 _Go ahead and laugh, girls. My boobs are going to be famous._ She thought. _And I'll have fun with Castle letting him apologize to me._

The End

 **Author's note # 1: I'm still working on Captain Kate and the Dragon, a Captain Kate Beckett, the pirate, story. And on The Girl I Left Behind Me, a story set three months after the end of season eight. I just got this one in my head and started writing. It was supposed to be only two or maybe three chapters, but…..**

 **Author's note # 2. WendyKW said she wished I had given more information about Castle's proposal and the wedding. I responded with the following:**

 **Castle proposed at a set of swings in Mars Park. It was very romantic. He got down on one knee and asked her to marry him. She accepted at once, of course.** ****

 **Castle almost missed the wedding when his rover was run off the road by four kids and a dog, but he made it on time. It wasn't a big wedding, just Alexis and a few friends. They managed to find some white cloth and Alexis wrote a program so that a computer could make a wedding dress.** ****

 **And they lived happily ever after. Occasionally interrupted by murders.**


End file.
